Creating Conditions for Change-Therapeutic Foster Care - The Creating Conditions for Change - Therapeutic Foster Care (3C-TFC) project strives to improve the quality of therapeutic foster care (TFC), an essential undertaking as the Family First Prevention Services Act restrictions will increase the number and acuity of children placed in TFC. A cadre of 240 3C-TFC Trainers will facilitate the adoption of this new trauma-informed, relationship-focused program in agencies nationwide. The goals are: 1) increase Therapeutic Foster Parents (TFPs) access to training that improves their capacity to meet their children's trauma-specific needs, 2) increase the capacity of agency staff to support and mentor TFPs as they apply new skills and knowledge regarding trauma-informed care, 3) increase the capacity of voluntary and public agencies to train, support, and retain qualified TFPs in their TFC programs, and 4) provide leadership and expertise in the NCTSN. To accomplish these goals two existing programs - the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Families (TCIF) and Children and Residential Experiences: Creating Conditions for Change (CARE) - will be adapted, updated and integrated. CARE, a trauma-informed, evidence-based program model provides a set of evidence-informed principles that emphasize building developmental relationships, maintaining trauma-sensitive environments, and working effectively with biological families. TCIF is an evidence-informed curriculum that prepares foster parents to therapeutically prevent, de-escalate, or manage challenging behaviors. A training program for TFPs and one for the Staff that support them will be developed by updating and expanding existing TCIF and CARE materials based on a review of current scientific literature and stakeholder focus groups. To improve accessibility, both TFP and Staff trainings will include materials to facilitate learning in three modalities: in-person training, live virtual training, and self-paced E-learning. After obtaining systematic feedback from both TFP and Staff participants in field tests of particular components and three complete pilot cycles of each training program, these curricula will be finalized, and a Train-the-Trainer (TxT) program and certification process will be developed. An initial cadre of 240 Trainers, who will receive ongoing technical assistance and consultation as they train TFPs and Staff in their own programs, will be certified by conducting 12 TxT programs across the country. Additional feedback will be collected from the Trainers as well as the Staff and TFPs they train. Trainers will report on the fidelity with which they were able to complete the training programs. Staff and TFPs will complete specifically designed feedback forms about each component of the training. Surveys of Staff and TFPs as well as focus groups with Staff and interviews with TFPs will assess the perceived feasibility, acceptability, and usefulness of the training, explore the extent to which trainees were able to incorporate the knowledge and skills into their practice, and identify additional topics that need to be included in future training update modules. Over the course of the project 200 TFPs, 200 Staff, and 276 Trainers will participate.
